Tuesday, January 29, 2013

From Wikipedia"Despite the Stuka's vulnerability to enemy fighters having been exposed during the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe had no choice but to continue its development, as there was no replacement aircraft in sight. The result was the D-series. In June 1941, the RLM ordered five prototypes, the Ju 87 V21–25. A Daimler-Benz DB 603
powerplant was to be installed in the Ju 87 D-1, but it did not have
the power of the Jumo 211 and performed "poorly" during tests and was
dropped.
The Ju 87 D-series featured two coolant radiators underneath the
inboard sections of the wings, while the oil cooler was relocated to the
position formerly occupied by the coolant radiator. The D-series also
introduced an aerodynamically refined cockpit with better visibility and
space. In addition, armor protection was increased and a new dual-barrel 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 81Z machine gun
with an extremely high rate of fire was installed in the rear defensive
position. Engine power was increased again, the Jumo 211J now
delivering 1,420 PS (1,044 kW, 1,401 hp).
Bomb carrying ability was nearly quadrupled from 500 kg (1,100 lb) in
the B-version to 1,800 kg (3,970 lb) in the D-version (max. load for
short ranges, overload condition), a typical bomb load ranged from
500-1,200 kg (1,100-2,650 lb).

Kette of Ju 87 Ds in flight, October/November 1943

The internal fuel capacity of the Ju 87D was raised to 800 L (of
which 780 L were usable) by adding additional wing tanks while retaining
the option to carry two 300 L drop tanks. Tests at Rechlin
revealed it made possible a flight duration of 2 hours and 15 minutes.
With an extra two 300 L (80 US gal) fuel tanks, it could achieve four
hours flight time.The D-2 was a variant used as a glider tug by converting older
D-series airframes. It was intended as the tropical version of the D-1
and had heavier armour to protect the crew from ground fire. The armour
reduced its performance and caused the Oberkommando der Luftwaffe to "place no particular value on the production of the D-2".
The D-3 was an improved D-1 with more armour for its ground-attack
role. A number of Ju 87 D-3s were designated D-3N or D-3 trop and fitted
with night or tropical equipment. The D-4 designation applied to a prototype torpedo-bomber version, which could carry a 750–905 kg (1,650-2,000 lb) aerial torpedo on a PVC 1006 B rack. The D-4 was to be converted from D-3 airframes and operated from the aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin.
Other modifications included a flame eliminator and, unlike earlier D
variants, two 20 mm MG 151/20 cannon, while the radio operator/rear
gunner's ammunition supply was increased by 1,000 to 2,000 rounds.The Ju 87 D-5 was based on the D-3 design and was unique in the Ju 87
series as it had wings 0.6 metres (1 foot) longer than previous
variants. The two 7.92 mm MG 17 wing guns were exchanged for more
powerful 20 mm MG 151/20s to better suit the aircraft's ground-attack
role. The window in the floor of the cockpit was reinforced and four,
rather than the previous three, aileron hinges were installed. Higher
diving speeds were obtained of 650 km/h (408 mph) up to 2,000 m
(6,560 ft). The range was recorded as 715 km (443 mi) at ground level
and 835 km (517 mi) at 5,000 m (16,400 ft).The D-6, according to "Operating instructions, works document 2097",
was built in limited numbers to train pilots on "rationalised versions".
However, due to shortages in raw materials, it did not go into mass
production.
The D-7 was another ground attack aircraft based on D-1 airframes
upgraded to D-5 standard (armor, wing cannons, extended wing panels),
while the D-8 was similar to the D-7 but based on D-3 airframes. The D-7 and D-8 were both were fitted with flame dampers, and could conduct night operations.Production of the D-1 variant started in 1941 with 495 ordered. These
aircraft were delivered between May 1941 and March 1942. The RLM wanted
832 machines produced from February 1941. The Weserflug company was
tasked with their production. From June to September 1941, 40 Ju 87 Ds
were expected to be built, increasing to 90 thereafter.
Various production problems were encountered. Just one of the planned
48 was produced in July. Of the 25 the RLM hoped for in August 1941,
none were delivered. Only in September 1941 did the first two of the planned 102 Ju 87s roll off the production lines.
The shortfalls continued to the end of 1941. During this time, the WFG
plant in Lemwerder moved production to Berlin. Over 165 Ju 87s had not
been delivered and production was only 23 Ju 87 Ds per month out of the
40 expected. By the spring of 1942 to the end of production in 1944,
3,300 Ju 87s, mostly D-1s, D-2s and D-5s had been manufactured.Total production amounted to 3639 Ju 87D (592 D-1, 1559 D-3 and 1448
D-5), all built by Weserflug. The last Ju 87 D-5 rolled off the
production lines in September 1944.The Ju 87 E and F proposals were never built, and Junkers went
straight onto the next variant. Another variant derived from the Ju 87D
airframe, the Ju 87H saw service as a dual-control trainer.In January 1943, a variety of Ju 87 Ds became "test beds" for the Ju
87 G variants. At the start of 1943, the Luftwaffe test centre at Tarnewitz tested this combination from a static position. Oberst G. Wolfgang Vorwald noted the experiments were not successful, and suggested the cannon be installed on the Messerschmitt Me 410. However, testing continued, and on 31 January 1943, Ju 87 D-1 W.Nr 2552 was tested by HauptmannHans-Karl Stepp near the Briansk
training area. Stepp noted the increase in drag, which reduced the
aircraft's speed to 259 km/h (162 mph). Stepp also noted that the
aircraft was also less agile than the existing D variants. D-1 and D-3
variants operated in combat with the 37 mm (1.46 in) BK 37 cannon in
1943.

Monday, January 28, 2013

Here are some more images of Artesania Latina's 1/35 scale H.M.S. Bounty's Jolly Boat.From Wikipedia"The jolly boat was a type of ship's boat in use during the 18th
and 19th centuries. The origins of the name is the subject of debate,
but it was by the 18th century one of a number of ship's boats,
and was used mainly to ferry personnel to and from the ship, or for
other small scale activities. The design continued to evolve throughout
its period in service. The term 'jolly boat' has several potential origins. It may originate in the Dutch or Swedish jolle, a term meaning a small bark or boat. Other possibilities include the English term yawl,
or the 'gelle-watte', the latter being a term in use in the 16th
century to refer to the boat used by the captain for trips to and from
shore. The term appears in Chamber's Encyclopedia between 1727 and 1741, and as 'jolly' in the works of Frederick Marryat, though it may have been in use considerably earlier, as the record of the voyages of Francis Drake and John Hawkins
has 'That day the Pegasus jolly was going on shore for water, carying
no guarde. The Spaniards perceiving it came downe upon them.Jolly boats were usually the smallest type of boat carried on ships, and were generally between 16 and 18 feet long. They were clinker-built and propelled by four or six oars. When not in use the jolly boat normally hung from davits at the stern of a ship, and could be hoisted into and out of the water.
Jolly boats were used for transporting people and goods to and from
shore, for carrying out inspections of the ship, or other small tasks
and duties that required only a small number of people, and did not need
the use of the larger boats, such as the launch or cutter. Jolly boats were carried on practically all types of warships of the Royal Navy during the age of sail, from ships of the line down to sloops and brigs. Ships of the line would carry a barge, launch, pinnace, two cutters, all of various sizes, and a jolly boat, while the brigs might just carry a jolly boat and a cutter.
The application of the jolly boat was developed further during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, particularly by the frigate commander Sir George Collier. Collier, who was active in the close blockade of the Spanish coast during the Peninsular War, combined the features of a jolly boat with those of a whaleboat and found the result extremely seaworthy and particularly effective in carrying out shore landings.
The design was particularly buoyant and was often described as a type
of lifeboat. Several captains ordered these boats for their own ships,
while the Admiralty
considered the possibility of ordering a general replacement of
old-style jolly boats with the new 'lifeboat' design on several
occasions, but were deterred by the cost.
By 1815 however the Stores Committee had authorised the replacement of
the old-style jolly boats with the improved versions as and when it
proved practical for a ship's commander to carry this out.

Some 1,300 miles (2,100 km) west of Tahiti, near Tonga,
mutiny broke out on 28 April 1789. Despite strong words and threats
heard on both sides, the ship was taken bloodlessly and apparently
without struggle by any of the loyalists except Bligh himself. Of the 42
men on board aside from Bligh and Christian, 22 joined Christian in
mutiny, two were passive, and 18 remained loyal to Bligh.The mutineers ordered Bligh, two midshipmen, the surgeon's mate (Ledward), and the ship's clerk into the ship's boat.
Several more men voluntarily joined Bligh rather than remain aboard.
Bligh and his men sailed the open boat 30 nautical miles (56 km) to Tofua
in search of supplies, but were forced to flee after attacks by hostile
natives resulted in the death of one of the men. Bligh then undertook
an arduous journey to the Dutch port of Coupang,
located over 3,500 nautical miles (6,500 km) from Tofua. He safely
landed there 47 days later, having lost no men during the voyage except
the one killed on Tofua.The mutineers sailed for the island of Tubuai,
where they tried to settle. After three months of being terrorized by
the natives, however, they returned to Tahiti. Sixteen of the mutineers
and the four loyalists who had been unable to accompany Bligh remained
there, taking their chances that the Royal Navy would find them and
bring them to justice.Immediately after setting the sixteen men ashore in Tahiti in
September 1789, Fletcher Christian, eight other crewmen, six Tahitian
men, and 11 women, one with a baby, set sail in Bounty hoping to
elude the Royal Navy. According to a journal kept by one of Christian's
followers, the Tahitians were actually kidnapped when Christian set sail
without warning them, the purpose of this being to acquire the women.
The mutineers passed through the Fiji and Cook Islands, but feared that they would be found there. Continuing their quest for a safe haven, on 15 January 1790 they rediscovered Pitcairn Island,
which had been misplaced on the Royal Navy's charts. After the decision
was made to settle on Pitcairn, livestock and other provisions were
removed from Bounty. To prevent the ship's detection, and anyone's possible escape, the ship was burned on 23 January 1790 in what is now called Bounty Bay.Thirty-five years later in 1825, HMS Blossom on a voyage of exploration under Captain Frederick William Beechey,
arrived on Christmas Day off Pitcairn and spent 19 days there. Captain
Beechey later recorded this in his 1831 published account of the voyage,
as did one of his crew, John Bechervaise, in his 1839 Thirty-Six years of a Seafaring Life by an Old Quarter Master.
Beechey wrote a detailed account of the mutiny as recounted to him by
the last survivor, Adams. Bechervaise, who described the life of the
islanders, says he found the remains of Bounty and took some pieces of wood from it which were turned into souvenirs such as snuff boxes.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Here are some images of Artesania Latina's 1/65 scale Santa Maria used by Christopher Columbus in 1492.

From Wikipedia"The Santa María was probably a medium sized nao (carrack), about 58 ft (17.7 m) long on deck, "very little larger than 100 toneladas" (100 tons, or tuns) burthen, or burden, and was used as the flagship for the expedition. The other ships of the Columbus expedition were the smaller caravel-type ships Santa Clara, remembered as La Niña ("The Girl"), and La Pinta ("The Painted One"). All these ships were second-hand (if not third or more) and were never meant for exploration. The Niña, Pinta, and the Santa María were modest sized merchant vessels comparable in size to a modern yacht,
and not the largest ships in Europe at the time. The exact measurements
of length and width of the three ships have not survived, but good
estimates of their size can be judged from contemporary Spanish and
Portuguese ship wrecks from the late 15th and early 16th centuries;
These include the ballast piles and keel lengths of the Molasses Reef Wreck and Highborn Cay Wreck in the Bahamas. Both were caravel type vessels 22 m (72 ft) in length overall, 12.6 m (41 ft) keel length and 5 to 5.7 m (16 to 19 ft) in width, and rated between 100 and 150 tons burden. The Santa María, being Columbus' largest ship, was only about this size, and the Niña and Pinta were even tinier, at only 50 to 70 tons burden (updated dimensional estimates are discussed below in the section entitled Replicas).The Santa María was built in Castro-Urdiales, Cantabria, in Spain's north-east. It seems the ship was known to her sailors as Marigalante, Spanish for "Gallant Maria". The naos employed on Columbus's second voyage were named Marigalante and Gallega.Bartolomé de Las Casas never used La Gallega, Marigalante or Santa María in his writings, preferring to use la Capitana or La Nao.The Santa María had a single deck and three masts.
She was the slowest of Columbus's vessels but performed well in the
Atlantic crossing. After engaging in festivities and drinking, Columbus
ordered that the crew continue sailing to Cuba late into the night.
One-by-one the crew kept falling asleep until only a cabin boy was
steering the ship which caused the ship to run aground off the
present-day site of Cap-Haïtien, Haiti on December 25, 1492, and was lost.
Realizing that the ship was beyond repair, Columbus ordered his men to
strip the timbers from the ship. The timbers from the ship were later
used to build La Navidad (Christmas) because the wreck occurred on Christmas Day, north from the modern Limonade.The anchor of the Santa María now resides in the Musée du Panthéon National Haitien (MUPANAH), in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.Columbus's crew was not composed of criminals as is widely believed. Many were experienced seamen from the port of Palos in Andalusia and its surrounding countryside, as well as from the region of Galicia
in northwest Spain. It is true, however, that the Spanish sovereigns
offered an amnesty to convicts who signed up for the voyage; still, only
four men took up the offer: one who had killed a man in a fight, and
three friends of his who had then helped him escape from jail.Despite the romantic legend that the Queen of Spain had used a
necklace that she had received from her husband the King as collateral
for a loan, the voyage was principally financed by a syndicate of seven
noble Genovese bankers resident in Seville (the group was linked to Amerigo Vespucci and funds belonging to Lorenzo di Pier Francesco de Medici). Hence, all the accounting and recording of the voyage was kept in Seville. This also applies to the second voyage, even though the syndicate had by then disbanded.

Very little is known definitively about the actual dimensions of this
vessel, since no documentation or illustration has survived from that
era. Interest in reconstructing the Santa María started in Spain
at around 1890 for the 400th anniversary of Columbus's voyage. The 1892
reconstruction, by the Spanish government, depicted the ship as a nao. A subsequent replica built in 1929 depicts the Santa María as a caravel without the high forecastle of the nao. As the ship is most commonly considered to have been a nao, the 1992 reconstruction returned to that model, and is generally considered to be an authoritative representation of modern consensus among academics and historians.The 1992 replica was built by the Scarano Brothers Boat Building
Company in Albany who later cut the ship in half with a chainsaw and
transported it by semi truck to the Scioto River in Columbus, OH
who paid for the replica in 1990. The replica cost about 1.2 million
dollars. The ship was constructed out of white cedar wood as opposed to
an oak wood used on the original to give the ship a long life in the
Scioto River and to save on cost. The main mast was carved out of a
single douglas fir
tree like the original and was equipped with a top sail (since
removed). The ship was built using power tools, with a hull length of
29.6 m (97 ft), keel length 16.1 m (53 ft), beam 7.9 m (26 ft), depth
3.2 m (10 ft) and load 223.8 metric tons of displacement. The foremast is 9.7 m (32 ft) high, the mainmast is 15.9 m (52 ft) and mizzen mast
is 10.4 m (34 ft). The replica was declared by Jose Maria
Martinez-Hidalgo, an internationally recognized Spanish marine
historian, to be the most authentic replica of the Santa María in the world during the ship's coronation on October 12, 1991:

"I have studied Christopher Columbus for nearly fifty years. I can state that this Santa María
has been perfectly rebuilt. Many compliments to the builders. I can
think of only one real difference between this replica and the real Santa María. One was built in Europe, this one was built in America."

The mayor of Columbus, Dana Rinehart
later christened the ship as part of the 500 year anniversary of
Columbus sailing to the New World. It was rumoured that during the first
christening of the ship, that the bottle did not break which is seen as
bad luck. The replica has been a sight for tourism ever since.Anchored in "Deep Sea Adventure Lake", West Edmonton Mall's Santa María is another replica located in Canada. Built at False Creek in Vancouver, British Columbia, the ship was hand-carved and hand-painted and then transported in flatbed trucks across the Rocky Mountains to Edmonton, Alberta. (I would like to point out that though its name is the Santa Maria, the ship in West Edmonton Mall looks more like a Spanish Gallion instead of a 15th century carrack).
The functional replica of Santa María was built on the island
of Madeira, between July 1997 and July 1998, in the fishing village of
Camara de Lobos by Robert Wijntje, a dutchman and by local craftsmen.
Length of that ship is 22 m (72 ft), and width of 7 m (23 ft). In 1998,
the Santa María represented the Madeira Wine Expo 98 in Lisbon,
where she was visited by over 97 thousand people in only 25 days. Since
then thousands more have sailed and continue to sail aboard that Santa María which is situated in Funchal.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

From Wikipedia"When and where the Mayflower of the Pilgrim voyage of 1620 was built is not known, but it is not improbable that she was launched at Harwich
in Essex county, England, and although later known ‘of London’, she was
designated as ‘of Harwich’ in the Port Books of 1609-11. Harwich was
the birthplace of Mayflower master Christopher Jones about 1570.The Mayflower was rated at 180 tons—meaning it had a hold that could
accommodate 180 casks of rum or wine—and was about 100 feet in length.
Since Captain Jones became master eleven years prior to the Mayflower
Pilgrims' voyage, the ship had sailed cross-Channel taking English
woolens to France and bringing French wine to London. In addition to
wine and wool, Jones had transported hats, hemp, Spanish salt, hops and
vinegar to Norway and may have taken the Mayflower whaling in the North
Atlantic in the Greenland area. It had traveled to Mediterranean
ports, being then owned by Christopher Nichols, Robert Child, Thomas
Short and Christopher Jones, the ship’s master. In 1620 Capt. Jones and
Robert Child still owned their quarter shares in the ship, and it was
from them that Thomas Weston chartered her in the summer of 1620 to undertake the Pilgrim voyage. Weston was deeply involved in the Mayflower voyage due to his membership in the investor group Merchant Adventurers, and eventually came to Plymouth Colony himself.From the Port Books of England in the reign of James I
(1603-1625), there were twenty-six vessels bearing the same name as the
Pilgrim ship and the reason for such popularity has never been found.A particular Mayflower that has caused historical confusion is
a ‘Mayflower’ erroneously named as the Mayflower of the 1620 Pilgrims.
This particular ship was partly owned by John Vassall and was outfitted for the queen in 1588 during the time of the Spanish Armada, a war for which he outfitted several ships. There are no records of this Vassall ‘Mayflower’ beyond 1594.From records of the time, and to avoid confusion with the many other ‘Mayflower’ ships, the identity of Captain Jones’ Mayflower is based on her home port, her tonnage (est. 180-200 tons), and the master’s name in 1620.August 1609 records first note Christopher Jones as master and part owner of the Mayflower when his ship was chartered for a voyage from London to Drontheim (Trondheim) in Norway, and back to London.
Due to bad weather, on her return, the ship lost an anchor and made
short delivery of her cargo of herrings. Litigation was involved and was
proceeding in 1612.In a document of January 1611, Christopher Jones is described as being ‘of Harwich’, and his ship is called the Mayflower of Harwich (in Essex co.). Records of Jones’ ship Mayflower have the ship twice in the Thames in London in 1613 – once in July and again in October and November.Records of 1616 again state Jones’ ship was in the Thames and the
noting of wine on board suggests the ship had recently been on a voyage
to France, Spain, Portugal, the Canaries, or some other wine country.After 1616, there is no record which specifically relates to Jones’ Mayflower
until 1624. This is unusual for a ship trading to London, as it would
not usually disappear for such a long time from the records. There is no
Admiralty court
document relating to the pilgrim fathers' voyage of 1620 that can be
found. Perhaps the situation of the way the transfer of the pilgrims
from Leyden to New England waThe Mayflower embarked about sixty-five passengers in London, probably off Blackwall or Wapping, about the middle of July 1620 and proceeded down the Thames into the English Channel and then on to Southampton Water, the rendezvous, where for seven days she awaited the coming of the Speedwell, bringing the Leyden church members, who had sailed from Delfshaven about the 22nd of the month (Bradford).About August 5, the two ships set sail for their destination. The unseaworthy Speedwell
sprang a leak shortly after they put into Dartmouth for repairs. After
the repairs, a new start was made. They were more than two hundred miles
beyond Land’s End at the southwestern tip of England when Speedwell
sprang another leak. Since it was now early September, they had no
choice but to abandon the Speedwell and make a determination on her
passengers. This was a dire event, as the ship had wasted vital funds
and was considered very important to the future success of their
settlement in America. Soon after the Mayflower continued on her voyage
to America, Speedwell was sold, refitted, and, according to Bradford,
“made many voyages…to the great profit of her owners.” Bradford later
assumed that the Speedwell master Mr. Reynolds’s “cunning and deceit”
(in causing what may have been ‘man-made’ leaks in the ship) had been
motivated by a fear of starving to death in America.In addition to the 102 passengers, the officers and crew consisted of
about 50 persons, including about 36 men before the mast, bringing the
total persons on board the Mayflower to about one hundred and fifty.In early September, western gales begin to make the North Atlantic a
dangerous place for sailing. The Mayflower's provisions, already quite
low when departing Southampton, became much less by delays of more than
of a month, and the passengers, having been aboard ship for all this
time, were quite worn out by then and in no condition for a very taxing
lengthy Atlantic journey cooped up in cramped spaces in a small ship.
But on September 6, 1620, the Mayflower sailed from Plymouth with what
Bradford called “a prosperous wind.”The known names of the ship’s crew are as follows: Christopher Jones
Captain/Governor; masters mates: John Clarke (Pilot), Robert Coppin
(Pilot), Andrew Williamson and John Parker; Surgeon: Doctor Giles Heale;
Cooper: John Alden. Alden would later marry Priscilla, daughter of William Mullins, Mayflower passengers, and together would have a large family.Tradition has it that the last port in England for the Mayflower was
actually not Plymouth but Newlyn in Cornwall on the Land's End peninsula
when it was found that the water picked up at Plymouth was
contaminated. Scholarly works do not mention this stop, but Newlyn has a
plaque to this effort on its quay. Only the year "1620" is provided,
with no date.Aboard the Mayflower were many stores that supplied the pilgrims with
the essentials needed for their journey and future lives. It is assumed
that among these stores, they would have carried tools and weapons,
including cannon, shot, and gunpowder; as well as some live animals,
including dogs, sheep, goats, and poultry. Horses and cattle would come
later. The Mayflower would also carry two boats: a long boat and a
“shallop”, a sort of twenty-one foot dinghy. She also carried twelve
artillery pieces (eight minions and four sakers),
as the Pilgrims feared they might need to defend themselves against the
Spaniards, Frenchmen, or the Dutch, as well as the Natives.

It had been a miserable passage with a huge wave crashing against the
ship’s topside until a structural support timber fractured. So far the
passengers had suffered agonizing delays, cold and the scorn and
ridicule of the sailors, but had done everything they could the help the
carpenter repair the fractured ship’s beam. A mechanical device called
screw-jack was loaded on board to help them in the construction of homes
in the New World. The beam was loaded into place with the screw jack
making the Mayflower secure enough to continue the voyage.There were two deaths, but this was only a precursor of what happened
after their arrival in Cape Cod, where almost half the company would
die in the first winter.On November 9/19, 1620, they sighted land, which was present-day Cape Cod. After several days of trying to sail south to their planned destination of the Colony of Virginia
where they had already obtained permission from the Company of Merchant
Adventurers to settle, strong winter seas forced them to return to the
harbor at Cape Cod hook, well north of the intended area.
where they anchored on November 11/21. To establish legal order and to
quell increasing strife within the ranks, the settlers wrote and signed
the Mayflower Compact after the ship dropped anchor at the tip of Cape Cod on November 11/21, in what is now Provincetown Harbor. The Mayflower Compact was signed that day.On Monday, November 27, an exploring expedition was launched to
search for a settlement site under the direction of Christopher Jones.
As master of the Mayflower, Jones was not required to assist in the
search, but he apparently thought it in his best interest to assist the
search expedition. There were thirty-four persons in an open shallop –
twenty-four passengers and ten sailors. They were obviously not prepared
for the bitter winter weather they encountered on their reconnoiter,
the Mayflower passengers not being used to the winter weather much
colder than back home. Due to the bad weather encountered on the
expedition, they were forced to spend the night ashore ill-clad in below
freezing temperatures with wet shoes and stockings that became frozen.
“(s)ome of our people that are dead,” Bradford wrote,”took the original
of their death here.” The settlers explored the snow-covered area and discovered an empty
native village. The curious settlers dug up some artificially made
mounds, some of which stored corn, while others were burial sites. Nathaniel Philbrick claims that the settlers stole the corn and looted and desecrated the graves, sparking friction with the locals.
Philbrick goes on to say that, as they moved down the coast to what is
now Eastham, they explored the area of Cape Cod for several weeks,
looting and stealing native stores as they went. He then writes about how they decided to relocate to Plymouth after a difficult encounter with the local native, the Nausets, at First Encounter Beach, in December 1620.However, Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation records
that they took "some" of the corn to show the others back at the boat,
leaving the rest. Then, later, they took what they needed from another
store of grain, paying the locals back in six months, and it was gladly
received.

Also there was found more of their corn and of their beans of various
colors; the corn and beans they brought away, purposing to give them
full satisfaction when they should meet with any of them as, about some
six months afterward they did, to their good content.

During the winter, the passengers remained on board the Mayflower,
suffering an outbreak of a contagious disease described as a mixture of scurvy, pneumonia and tuberculosis. When it ended, there were only 53 passengers, just over half, still alive. Likewise, half of the crew died as well. In the spring, they built huts ashore, and on March 21/31, 1621, the surviving passengers disembarked from the Mayflower. The Mayflower lay in New Plymouth harbor through the winter of 1620-1. On April 5/15, 1621, the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth to return to England, where she arrived on May 6/16, 1621.Due to the fear of Indian attack, in late February 1621, the settlers
decided to mount “our great ordnances” on the hill overlooking the
settlement. Christopher Jones supervised the transportation of the
“great guns” – about six iron cannons that ranged between four and eight
feet in length and weighed almost half a ton. The cannon were able to
hurl iron balls as big as 3 ½ inches in diameter as far as 1,700 yards.
This action made what was no more than a ramshackle village almost into a
well-defended fortress.Jones had originally planned to return to England as soon as the
Pilgrims found a settlement site. But after his crew members began to be
ravaged by the same diseases that were felling the Pilgrims, he
realized he had to remain in Plymouth Harbor “till he saw his men began
to recover.”On April 5, the Mayflower, her empty hold ballasted with stones from
the Plymouth Harbor shore, set sail for England. As with the Pilgrims,
her sailors had been decimated by disease. Jones had lost his boatswain,
his gunner, three quartermasters, the cook, and more than a dozen
sailors. The Mayflower made excellent time on her voyage back to
England. The westerlies that had buffeted her coming out pushed her
along going home and she arrived at the home port of Rotherhithe in
London on May 6, 1621 – less than half the time it had taken her to sail
to America." Jones died after coming back from a voyage to France on March 5,
1622, at about age 52. It is suggested that his journey to the New World
may have taken its toll on him. For the next two years, the Mayflower
lay at her berth in Rotherhithe, not far from the grave of Captain Jones
at St. Mary’s church there. By 1624, the Mayflower was no longer useful
as a ship and although her subsequent fate is unknown, she was probably
broken up about that time. The Mayflower was the final casualty of a
voyage that had cost her master, Christopher Jones, everything he could
give.”s arranged may account for this. Or
possibly many of the records of the period have been lost.

Friday, January 25, 2013

From Wookieepedia"The TIE Experimental M1, also known as the TIE Bizarro, was an experimental member of the TIE series and a part of the TIE Experimental Project.
One of the starfighters built by an Imperial research project led by Director Lenzer under the command of Grand AdmiralDemetrius Zaarin, the M1 consisted of a single standard TIE/LN starfighter
wing panel with two wing braces connected to a pair of standard TIE
series cockpit pods. The port pod held the control systems, and the
starboard pod held a turbolaser much heavier than the laser cannons equipped on any previous TIE.
Both pods had the trademark twin ion engines of the TIE series, and the fighter was actually slightly faster than the standard TIE/LN. The fighter was equipped with a hyperdrive, which was slaved to remote systems in a controller ship.
Rebel forces first encountered the M1 when they responded to a distress signal from a civilian convoy near the Belat system. A pair of A-wings escorting a staff transfer from Defiance to Liberty picked up the distress call during a course change between hyperspace jumps and responded to the attack. They found a squadron of TIE Experimental M1 fighters attacking a Cloburi Freight convoy, while a Beta-class ETR-3 escort transport stood by. The A-wings defeated the TIE M1s with minimal Rebel or civilian losses.
Later, when the Alliance ordered an intelligence-gathering strike
on a TIE Experimental production facility, several waves of M1 fighters
were found in the station's defense screen. They were also present at
the main research facility, defending the hangar ship Sardis and space stationObsidian.
After the destruction of space platform Obsidian, no TIE Experimental fighters were seen again.

Monday, January 21, 2013

Here is my composite image of MPC's 1/72 scale Lambda Class Shuttle from the Star Wars universe against an intense star field.
The star field of course is a manipulation of an original star field created by Dark Maiden.

From Memory Alpha"
DY 100 Class The ships were especially designed for interplanetary travel. They had simple nuclearpowered engines and were equipped with artificial gravity. They utilised transistors
as components. DY-100 ships were launched into orbit with booster
rockets. In the 1990s, this class of spaceship was considered to be one
of the most advanced.
At least some of the DY-100 ships were sleeper ships. In those a crew of at least 85 could be placed into suspended animation inside life support canisters prior to liftoff. The life support of the ship was turned off for the journey. The use of suspended animation was necessary up to approximately 2018, as it took years to travel from planet to planet in the solar system prior to that.
The production of the DY-100 class ship began prior to 1996 and ended some time before the year 2000. A later generation of the class, the DY-500, was similar in configuration and some 23rd centuryHumans had trouble telling them apart. (TOS: "Space Seed")

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Here are some images plus my composite of AJAModel's German Orbiting Weapons satellite from 2001 a space odyssey.

From Wikipedia"How one views the satellites may affect one's reading of the film. Noted Kubrick authority Michel Ciment,
in discussing Kubrick's attitude toward human aggression and instinct,
observes "The bone cast into the air by the ape (now become a man) is
transformed at the other extreme of civilization, by one of those abrupt
ellipses characteristic of the director, into a spacecraft on its way
to the moon." In contrast to Ciment's reading of a cut to a serene "other extreme of civilization", science fiction novelist Robert Sawyer, speaking in the Canadian documentary 2001 and Beyond,
sees it as a cut from a bone to a nuclear weapons platform, explaining
that "what we see is not how far we've leaped ahead, what we see is that
today, '2001', and four million years ago on the African veldt, it's
exactly the same—the power of mankind is the power of its weapons. It's a
continuation, not a discontinuity in that jump."
Kubrick, notoriously reluctant to provide any explanation of his
work, never publicly stated the intended functions of the orbiting
satellites, preferring instead to let the viewer surmise what their
purpose might be.